Blago's Budget Busting

Blago is running into trouble with his attempts to get a bailout budget together for the RTA (CTA, Pace, and Metra). He called the General Assembly into session earlier in the week, and decided that instead of staying in Springfield to help with the effort, he'd treat himself to a Blackhawks game.

He was ridiculed in the House, where Rep. Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein) brought a hockey stick to the House floor to make a point.

"If he's truly up there working on commerce, that's one thing. But this is him going to a hockey game to enjoy himself at the expense of the people of the state of Illinois. You can't get any more plain than that," said Sullivan, who called on the governor to cut a check to the taxpayers for his airfare.

Shame on you, Mr. Governor. It's your budget you want pushed through, and you feel as though you don't even need to attend the budget battle? Shame, shame, shame.

Now, there's no resolution in sight, at least not til after the first of the year.

When Democrats Fight

Amazing how we seem to have only one party in this state right now. One would think they'd agree on almost everything. They don't. In fact, they can't even agree how best to ding us with taxes. Being Democrats, you'd think they could at least to that together. Maybe we should be thankful they disagree so much. Here's a case in point over the RTA with King Richard II vs. Blago from the Chicago Tribune.

Even ex-governor Jim Edgar sees it, and notices that it's gotten personal (from the Trib's Clout Street).

Edgar said he was “flabbergasted” by Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s decision to move ahead with a health-care expansion after it was rejected by a bipartisan legislative panel—a panel Edgar helped create while serving as a legislator in 1978.

Mass Transit Meeting "Unproductive Shouting"

From the Springfield Journal-Register, House Speaker Michael Madigan left a meeting about funding Chicagoland's mass transit, declaring it to be little more than "unproductive shouting". King Richard II, by contrast, felt "optimistic". The meeting was between Daley, Madigan, and Blagojevich, and other legislative leaders in Chicago.

I, for the record, support cleaning house in each of the RTA's agencies first, then raising fares so they can support themselves without any band-aid fixes or more taxes.